From Dungpileton:
Nearest Relative - 4 hours, San Antonio
Friend Martha and family - 6 hours, Texas Rio Grande Valley
Friends Andrea and Josh - 9 hours, Lubbock
Friends Rob and Sue - 16 hours, Durango, CO
When vacationing to visit I try to keep a semblance of normalcy
comparable to what I do at home such as exercise, proper diet, journal writing
et cetera. It never works out that way. Avoiding junk food is the
first discipline to fail. McDonalds may
serve artificial, salty fat laden offal but dammit, I love those
McGriddles! On the road it’s a constant
battle to not stay sedentary but even when you think you are exercising enough
to stave off the pounds somehow it’s not enough and you end up with a bloated,
distended stomach. In Lubbock I helped
Andrea with her landscaping business – cleaning out flower beds and hauling
brush from trees pruned by her son Josh.
Six to eight hours a day for 3 days would not have been that daunting if
I had not twisted my knee and reinjured a hamstring on a morning run. Lubbock, being the dreary conservative town
that it is, promotes a fat, sedentary life rather than fitness therefore there
are no bike and jogging paths. You are
on your own negotiating vehicles and uneven ground as you run. If dressed properly the temperatures in the
20’s is not a hindrance and actually better than Dungpileton because the
humidity is lower. Without Vicodin I
relied on daily dosages of Motrin to get by.
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| Glitter the horse. Lubbock Texas |
After day three I took to the road for Durango, CO to visit Robert and
Sue, my friends of 30+ years. As I
entered into Colorado from New Mexico I had this feeling of reaching friendly
lines because marihuana is legal for purchasing in this state. Just a feeling I couldn’t act on because I
have to follow the no drug policies set down by the Man which will remain in effect until
I retire. There was no delusion of taking it easy here. Rob is an avid trail runner and hiker. Ten miles hiking in the mountains in winter
is a walk in the park for him but this was my limit. We took to the mountains on the second
day. I wore Hi-Tec Gortex shoes, gaiters
and additional layers of clothing that worked effectively in the snow and
temperatures which hovered around freezing.
Three hours and 8 miles later we were back at the trail head. This was the peak of my exertion for the
remainder of the visit.
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| Colorado Trail to Gudy's Rest |
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| With Robert Graham at Gudy's Rest, Colorado Trail |
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| Durango, CO |
I was bloated,
broken down and passing kidney stones. It
was back to Lubbock for Joshua’s birthday then exile in Dungpileton where I am
now recovering from my vacation.
